Apple’s stock has ranged from US $13.63 to $64.12 in recent months (and is now about $19 per share) and though the company recently reported a 70 percent drop in quarterly profit and expects to fall short of fourth-quarter and full-year sales estimates, there are still reasons to be bullish about the company’s short and long-term future, according to a Sacramento Bee article.
Tim Bajarin, a longtime Apple watcher and president of Creative Strategies, a Silicon Valley consulting firm, told the Bee he was optimistic about Apple’s future.
“I have a different view than most people in that I believe that in the short term Apple has to play to its strengths,” he said. “Its products provide an easy tap into existing markets with its desktops and graphics and computers for certain professional engineering segments.
Bajarin also told the Bee that he applauds Apple’s move to open retail stores and that the early sales reports have been promising. The stores have been open for only two months and have been doing extremely well, but that “may just be because they’re a curiosity item,” the analyst added. But he told the Bee that if Apple can keep its head above water in the short term, investors could be rewarded in the longer term. In fact, Bajarin thinks Apple may be the only traditional personal computer company to survive and move into the digital world.
“In the end, we could have just two companies in that arena, Sony and Apple,” he told the Bee. However, he noted that investors have to realize that’s not happening any time soon. It could be three, five or seven years from now, so, in the short term, the company has to concentrate on its current strategy to continue profitability, Bajarin said.
“They need to aggressively expand their position in more places to sell products and over time use the stores and brand name to deliver other digital products,” he told the newspaper.
The article adds that A.G. Edwards analyst Brett Miller shares Bajarin’s view of Apple, noting in his recent analysis that the company’s “operating model is humming and continues to be a cash-generating machine in need of top-line revenues to flow through it.” This should begin in the December quarter, according to Miller.
Calling Apple its best pick in the PC sector, A.G. Edwards’ Miller says the company has increasing gross margins, declining operating expenses, one of the best inventory managements in the business and a rock-solid balance sheet, the Bee said.